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Invoice Capture

What is Invoice Capture?

Invoice capture is the process of extracting relevant data from invoices, both from digital and paper invoices.

The following data is commonly captured:

Without automatic invoice capture, an employee from the AP department has to manually capture the data from the invoice and enter it into the finance system. This process is tedious, takes time, and reduces the AP department to performing mundane, repetitive tasks. 

To speed up invoice capture, modern technologies such as AP automation software, with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is generally used. 

What is Optical Character Recognition (OCR)?

Optical Character Recognition is technology that’s used to identify handwritten or printed characters, including digital imagery or documentation. OCR technology often includes hardware and software that’s used to identify and capture text. 

Modern OCR technologies make use of AI to improve the accuracy of character recognition. OCR technologies generally use scanners to capture data from physical documents. AI also helps capture characters intelligently, including identifying languages or different types of handwriting. 

Benefits of Invoice Data Capture

There are several advantages of using AP automation software to capture data automatically from invoices. Here are some of the major advantages that invoice data capture offers. 

1. Reduces Repetitive Tasks

One of the biggest advantages of using automated invoice data capture technologies is that it reduces repetitive tasks by a considerable margin. Without automated invoice capture, an employee will have to manually copy the information from the invoice into the finance system.

This is time-consuming, and generally regarded as a low-level activity. In larger businesses that receive plenty of invoices throughout the day, it’s often difficult for AP departments to make time for anything else. Automated invoice data capture reduces the tedium of looking at invoices all day. 

2. Reduced Manual Input and Expenditure 

With automatic invoice capture, employees don’t have to succumb to manual labor to input invoice data into the system. Their only involvement is to check the data and then focus mainly on high-value tasks and activities. 

Manually entering data is a labor-intensive task, which is why automated invoice data capture introduces efficiencies in the process. This ultimately contributes to cutting costs for the business, as it negates the need to hire additional staff. 

3. Improved Invoice Capture Accuracy

There is always a risk of transcription error when copying data from an invoice into the finance system. With Optical Character Recognition (OCR), data is automatically captured, and the accuracy of character recognition continues to improve with time due to AI. 

Streamline Invoice Capture with AP Automation

SoftCo’s AP Automation software is an all-in-one solution that lets you manage and process invoices automatically, from capturing to matching to approvals and managing queries. It contains a dynamic matching engine that handles both 2-way and 3-way matching. It also lets you manage recurring invoices and automate approval workflows to mitigate manual input